■Essential Question:–What are the differences among the
Chesapeake, New England, Middle, & Southern colonies?
■CPUSH Agenda for Unit 1.3:–Clicker questions–“Compare the British Colonies” notes–Today’s HW: 2.3–Unit 1 Test: Friday, August 17
America: Story of Us Jamestown
In 1607, settlers founded Jamestown the first permanent British colony in America along
the Chesapeake Bay in present-day Virginia
In 1606, Virginia Company investors gained a charter from the king, recruited
settlers, and sent them to America in search of gold
Quick discussion:How did the settlers
gain rights and money to create a colony?
Jamestown was founded by British entrepreneurs of a joint-stock company called
the Virginia Company
Settlers built a fort, but struggled to
survive in their first years in America
Settlers arrived looking for gold so they did not prepare to stay long in America; They did not
plant crops & faced starvation
John Smith took control & forced settlers
to farm
“He who will not work, will not eat”
Jamestown was located on a swamp & led to outbreaks of disease
among colonists
Jamestown was located in territory controlled by the
Powhatan Indians who attacked the settlement
After the Jamestown colonists failed to find gold,
the joint-stock investors demanded that colonists
find a way to make money
In 1612, John Rolfe introduced tobacco in Jamestown which was popular in Europe &
made investors money
Tobacco was so profitable that
colonists planted more, built large
plantations, & expanded into new farm lands
Due to the success of tobacco,
the Jamestown settlement
expanded into the Virginia colony
Label on your map: Virginia & write why
the colony was founded
Quick discussion: How did Jamestown settlersfind enough workers to plant, harvest, and
package large amounts of tobacco?
Tobacco created a need for field laborers to plant
& pick the tobacco
Indentured servants were typically poor men or
women who agreed to work for a land owner for 4 to 7 years in exchange
for their travel to America
To meet the demand for workers, landowners in
Virginia used indentured servants from England
In 1618, Virginia introduced the Headright System which gave
50 acres to anyone who brought an indentured servant to America
Indentured servants were worked hard,
treated badly, & many died before their
contracts ended
The large population of
poor people in Britain led
thousands of people to
immigrating as indentured
servants by 1700
In the mid-1600s, fewer indentured servants
came to America as the British economy
improved; As a result, African slavery replaced indentured servitude as
the dominant labor system in Virginia
In addition to indentured servants,
Virginia landowners also used African slaves who
were first brought to Jamestown in 1619
African slaves were transported from Africa to America on slave ships across the “Middle Passage”
The “Coffin” Position Used Below DeskAfrican Captives Being Thrown OverboardSlave auction upon arrival in America
Quick discussion: As the Virginia colony grew, it needed government. What do you think the
colonial government looked like? Who had power?
Virginia colonists needed laws to maintain order but the British government was thousands of miles across
the Atlantic Ocean
In 1619, Virginians formed the House of Burgesses which was
the first legislative assembly in America
Virginia was a royal colony so it had a governor chosen by the king, but the House of Burgesses made the important decisions
regarding taxes & laws
Even though the leaders of the House of Burgesses were elected, they were rich planters who did not always represent the poor farmers of the colony Former indentured servants in western
Virginia suffered from low tobacco prices &
frequent Indian attacksPoor farmers, led by
Nathaniel Bacon, blamed Virginia’s governor for not protecting them &
started a rebellionBacon’s Rebellion proved to rich Virginians that
slaves were better than indentured servants because slaves would never ask for land
Closure Activity
Why would an indentured servant sell himself into bondage?
(Understanding Economics in U.S. History, Lesson 5)
The colonists who first settled in
New England came for religious reasons
Religious disagreementsin Britain led to divisions
in the Anglican Church
Puritans believed in the Calvinist idea of
predestination & tried to live strictly “Christian”
lives without sin
Puritans believed that the Anglican Church compromise too far
by allowing some Catholic rituals
Some radical Puritans were known as
Separatists because of unwillingness to wait
for church reforms
All Anglicans
Puritans
Separatists
The Separatists became “Pilgrims” when they formed a joint-stock company, gained a charter,
& created the Plymouth colony in America
Before landing in America, the Pilgrims created the
Mayflower Compact agreeing to work together as a “civil body politick”……The Mayflower Compact was the first example of
self-government in America
When the Pilgrims founded Plymouth in 1620,
they faced disease & hungerThe Pilgrims received help from local natives like
Squanto & Massasoit…
…and celebrated the first Thanksgiving to
honor the local Indians
When the Separatist Pilgrims came to America, the Puritans remained within the Church of England
But when the Catholic King Charles I
came to power, Puritans felt the time was right to
leave Britain In 1630, Puritans arrived in Boston
& created the New England
colony of Massachusetts
From 1630 to 1640, Puritan leader John Winthrop led 16,000 Puritans to the Massachusetts Bay
colony as part of the “Great Migration”
John Winthrop wanted to build Boston as a “city on a hill” to be a model to other Christians
Quick discussion: Based on these images, how were the New England colonies different from Virginia?
Massachusetts was a different colony from Virginia:Puritans came to America
for religious freedomPuritan settlers usually
came as familiesSettlers sacrificed for the common good, built
schools, & focused on subsistence farming
New England was a more healthy place to live than
Virginia so colonists lived longer
Government in in the New England colonies centered on the church through town meetings
Each New England town was
independently governed by local church members
All adult male church members were allowed to vote for local
laws & taxes
As the Massachusetts colony grew,
it spawned four new colonies: New Hampshire, Rhode Island,
New Haven, & Connecticut Connecticut
was important for creating the
first written constitution in
U.S. history called The Fundamental
Orders of Connecticut
As the New England colonies expanded into new lands, conflicts with Indians arose
The Pequot War in 1637 was the 1st major British-led attack on Indians & led to the death of 600 Indians
King Philip’s War broke out in 1675 when the Wampanoag Indians raided towns,
killing 10% of the colonial New England men
What might have caused the hysteria shown in this image?
New England Puritans did not like ideas that differed from their own beliefs
Roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts for demanding
that Indians be paid for their land;
He formed Rhode Island in 1636
Anne Hutchinson was banished for
challenging Puritan authority
By the 1660s, many New England towns experienced
a drop-off in church membership
Churches responded with the Halfway Covenant which gave
full church membership to people who had not had a
“conversion experience”
This compromise
brought people back
to the church, but showed
the declining importance of religion in New England
Religion played a role in the Salem witchcraft trials in 1692 when several
young girls accused people of being witchesThe hysteria was caused
by tensions over land ownership, Indian attacks, & religious disagreements
As a result of the trials, 19 people were killed & 150 citizens were jailed
Label on map: (a) Plymouth (b) Massachusetts (c) Rhode Island (d) Connecticut(e) New Hampshire(f) Group and label the five New England colonies(g) Label why the New England colonies were founded
Compare the Chesapeake & New England colonies by creating a cartoon sketch of each region.
Cartoons should include references to (a) government, (b) daily life, (c) economics
Cartoons should include (a) dialogue or captions, (b) labels to show references, (c) background
Virginia (Chesapeake) Massachusetts (New England)
Dialogue Label
The Middle &
Lower South Colonies
The 1st “middle” colony was New Netherland created by the Dutch West India Company
To attract settlers, the Dutch recruited Swedes,
Germans, & Africans; New Netherland
became very diverseBritain did not like the
Dutch a colony between their Chesapeake &
New England coloniesIn 1664, Britain seized the Dutch colony from Governor Stuyvesant & renamed it New York
Dutch governor Peter Stuyvesant resisted Britain’s takeover of New Netherlands but could not get the colonists to assist him
In what ways might Pennsylvania be different from other British colonies?
One of the most important middle
colonies was Pennsylvania which was founded by William Penn in 1681
Penn was a member of a religious sect called
Quakers who believed in the “Inner Light,” all
people are equal, & that people can communicate
directly with God
Penn founded his colony as a “holy experiment” to
promote religious tolerationHe bought land from the Indians, banned slavery,
& allowed a diverse population to move there
The middle colonies had two of the best ports
for trade in America: Philadelphia & New York
The image below is from the “Lower South” colony of South Carolina. Which other colony
might it be similar to? Why?
The Lower South colonies were the last British
colonies to be formedThe Carolinas & Georgia developed like Virginia
with a cash crop economy, slavery, & gaps between
rich & poor colonists
Georgia was created by James Oglethorpe as a buffer colony between
Carolina & Spanish Florida & was populated by
British debtors & prisoners
In addition to the 13 colonies, Britain had
colonies in the Caribbean
Colonies like Barbados & Jamaica were profitable,
producing sugar for Britain
Label on map: (a) New York (b) Pennsylvania (c) North Carolina(d) South Carolina(e) Georgia(f) Group and label the Middle & Southern colonies(g) Label why these colonies were founded
Closure Activity
Specialization and Trade in the Thirteen Colonies
(Understanding Economics in U.S. History, Lesson 6)
Closure Activity
Complete “Comparing the American Colonies” chart
